Argentine Rafael Grossi new IAEA chief

Argentine Rafael Grossi is the new director-general of the U.N. nuclear watchdog International Atomic Energy Agency(IAEA).

Grossi, 58, was endorsed by the agency’s board on Tuesday and he immediately pledged to act independently and neutrally on issues including Iran.

He succeeded Yukiya Amano, who died in office.

Grossi had been running neck-and-neck with Amano’s former right-hand man and current acting director general, Cornel Feruta of Romania, in repeated votes by the International Atomic Energy Agency’s 35-nation Board of Governors until Grossi took the lead on Monday.

Grossi, who had the early support of heavyweights including Brazil and the United States, reached the two-thirds of votes required on Tuesday, with 24 countries backing him. His appointment will now be signed off on by another board meeting and a wider meeting of all member states, both formalities.

“I will do my job and I think my job is to implement the mandate in a manner which is independent, which is fair, which is neutral,” Grossi told reporters after the vote when asked about Iran, declining to go into specifics.

Diplomats do not expect a major shift under Grossi in the IAEA’s stance on its most high-profile issues, such as policing Iran’s deal with major powers, which Iran is breaching step by step in response to crippling U.S. economic sanctions.

“What I think is important is that I give my member states and the international community the guarantee that I am absolutely independent and impermeable to pressure,” said Grossi, a veteran of nuclear diplomacy and currently Argentina’s ambassador to the IAEA.

The IAEA board aims to have Grossi take office by Jan. 1. Grossi said that might happen earlier.

Five Facts about Grossi:

He is a veteran of nuclear diplomacy. He worked in senior positions at the IAEA from 2010 to 2013 and since then as Argentina’s ambassador to the agency. He chairs the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty Review Conference due to be held in New York next year. The conference is held every five years.

-He has had his sights on the top job at the IAEA for a long time. He previously considered running against Yukiya Amano, who held the position until he died in office in July.

– Diplomats do not expect major shifts under Grossi on the agency’s most high-profile issues, such as policing Iran’s deal with nuclear powers or seeking to return to North Korea, which expelled IAEA inspectors in 2009.

Grossi has called the leadership change an “opportunity to recalibrate”, suggesting he plans moderate reform rather than a radical overhaul.

– Neither Grossi nor his opponent in the final rounds of voting, acting Director General Cornel Feruta of Romania, mentioned Iran in their opening speeches at their IAEA hustings.

Both Feruta and Grossi praised the IAEA’s safeguards work, which involves verifying countries are using nuclear technology solely for peaceful purposes. Grossi has pledged that the IAEA will continue this role in a firm and fair way.

– Grossi held the most public campaign of all four candidates, while his rivals operated mainly behind the scenes. Grossi says the IAEA needs to make its voice heard more in international debates